Stylos is the blog of Jeff Riddle, a Reformed Baptist Pastor in North Garden, Virginia. The title "Stylos" is the Greek word for pillar. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul urges his readers to consider "how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar (stylos) and ground of the truth."

Thursday, July 25, 2013

The Vision (7/25/13): The Craving for Extraordinary Experience

Note: I preached last Sunday at CRBC from Luke11:14-22 about Jesus healing a mute man and the unusual criticism this drew to
him. Here are some of my notes from the
exposition of v. 16 in the passage.

The
criticism of Jesus in v. 16 is of a different sort. It comes as a temptation: “And others, tempting [peirazo] him, sought of him a sign from heaven” (v. 16). Now, this one is really hard to
understand. They are saying to Jesus,
“Do a miracle to prove to us that you are really a miracle worker.” And they ask this just after he has performed
a miracle! They remind me of a man who
went searching his house for his eyeglasses and all the while he was wearing
them.

This
shows the fickleness of the people (recall Jesus’ parable of the children in
the marketplace in 7:31-35). It also
shows how insatiable the craving is in spiritually fallen men for
extra-ordinary experiences. This is true
whether the charismatic who goes seeking for higher and deeper experiences or
the Roman Catholic who goes from shrine to shrine to venerate weeping statues
or the presumed “image” of Jesus in a piece of toast. Those who base their faith on such experience
are like drug users; they need more and stronger doses to achieve a high.

I
heard a report on a podcast the other day of a young woman, the child of a
Christian apologist, who announced that she is now an atheist. In a statement she apparently said that part
of the reason she did this is that she didn’t feel anything when she
prayed. This is the problem when you
base your Christian life on feelings and experiences and miracles. Authentic faith is not about how you feel or
what you experience. It is about believing
what is true. The greatest miracle has
already been performed. Christ has died
on the cross for sinners and been gloriously raised. And still men crave “proof” that Jesus is the
Christ. When the Rich Man in Hades
pleaded with Father Abraham to send someone back from the dead to warn his
brothers, Abraham answered, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

May we
find satisfaction in Word of God and in the finished work of Christ.